Medical patients may receive a constant and/or monitored supply of oxygen during medical treatment. For example, patients undergoing surgery and/or medical patients having medical conditions which make breathing difficult (e.g., patients having Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Mesothelioma, obesity, and/or the like) may be provided with a monitored and/or constant supply of oxygen while receiving medical treatment.
Because patients receiving supplied oxygen may have difficulty breathing and/or may be undergoing surgery, such oxygen is generally supplied to patients via a mask configured to facilitate breathing for the patient. Accordingly, oxygen supply masks often cover both the nose and mouth of the patient in order to permit the patient to breathe through either orifice. Thus, access to both the patient's nose and mouth are significantly impeded once the mask is positioned over the patient's face. Due to the positioning of the oxygenation mask over both the patient's nose and mouth, the oxygenation mask may impede positioning of medical equipment around the patient's nose and mouth.
Certain oxygenation masks have sought to improve access to the patient's nose and mouth by providing access openings extending through a portion of mask such that medical equipment may be extended through one or more access openings for monitoring oxygen. Although such masks may facilitate placement of certain medical devices through the mask for monitoring oxygen, these masks typically do not fully address the difficulties in placing other commonly used medical monitoring devices into the mask for monitoring other gases.
Accordingly, an improved oxygenation mask is needed for providing increased patient comfort while providing improved monitoring of patient health conditions through the oxygenation mask.